This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!

About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Sunday, May 31, 2015

"My Own Man": a sensitive filmmaker assesses his own "masculinity" as he turns 40 and his wife has her first two children

In “My Own Man”, filmmaker David Sampliner, as he turns 40,
reflects on the pressures on him to conform to conventional pressures of
manhood, as he becomes a father to his first child. This film has a little bit of “Morgan
Spurlock”-style “Inside Man” character to it, but it is “softer”. I recall that some biologists say that new
father’s testosterone levels go down even more when they do child care, a
favorite point from the “Family Research Council”.

David grew up as a second child under a more “masculine”
older brother. His father, a successful
surgeon, had been a typical 1950s-style patriarchal husband in a Jewish family.

David reports that he lost the ability to throw a baseball
like a man at 10, and doesn’t know why.
So he won’t become a Clayton Kershaw.
But later he gets feedback that he lacks the “killer instinct” to
survive and protect people dependent on him. There is a play-acting
confrontation where he doesn’t show the instinct to say “F- you, get out of my
way” that a more aggressive man would.

He graduated from Yale, but bounced around a while (not
becoming a history professor), even working in a fast-food job (“paying his
dues”) before becoming a filmmaker.

Perhaps he is what Paul Rosenfels would have called “psychologically
feminine”.

He takes a testosterone test, and the results put him at the
low end of normal. In appearance, he
looks male enough, relatively trim with a hairy body. But compared to his brother in gym exercises,
he lacks coordination.

So he goes on a quest to discover masculinity, including
hunting lessons (aka “The Deer Hunter”).
His father thinks there is something of existential importance to being
able to survive on your own with a weapon and live on what you can kill (which
Mark Zuckerberg has tried). He also
takes voice lessons on assertiveness.

I remember a rude question on a job interview to become a
debt collector, whether I had ever gotten results by ordering other people
around. And authoritative assertion was
a problem when I worked as a substitute teacher.

The official site is here This is a Netflix (“Red Envelope”) original
documentary, an opportunity I will make personal note of. It is available on Instant Play.

At the end of the film, his wife announces a second child,
proudly. “Another baby in our family.”

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